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Quote from article "The 8th grade students, who attend Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County, were required to seek out the vulnerabilities of Republican presidential hopefuls and forward them to the Obama campaign."
Quote from article "The 8th grade students, who attend Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County, were required to seek out the vulnerabilities of Republican presidential hopefuls and forward them to the Obama campaign."
Something tells me that a political faction willing to stoop this low... and this isn't their first time with these sorts of tactics... why people continue to support them.... oh, that's right... that's right, they are hoping for a bit of quid pro quo
The conservative-leaning Daily Caller website reported Thursday that Liberty Middle School teacher Michael Denman told his eighth-grade students to find “weaknesses” among the GOP candidates and send their results to President Obama’s campaign.
John Torre, a spokesman for the schools system, said the kids weren’t instructed to send their findings to the Democrats. Denman didn’t reply to an email.
I'm unsure if it's a newer thing, but on big election years there tends to be some work related to the election. It's common to do critical thinking group work in school.
I remember doing a similar exercise when I took an American Government class in High School. We had to research all the candidates, come up with their weaknesses (at the time, both the democrats and republicans had primaries). It was such a great critical thinking exercise. I remember watching the debates in class, the teacher helping us analyze exactly what was going on. Even down to what color ties the candidates wore (blue for trust). I learned a lot about politics in that class.
The last part seems odd, but they didn't actually forward the information to the campaign. Sounds like teacher just wanted the students to figure out how campaigns are run. They didn't actually send the info to the campaign. If they did, that would be weird indeed.
I have my students draft letters to their Congressman about an issue related to our class. They have to write 1 opposing the issue, 1 for the issue. "Leaving politics out of the classroom" as quotes from the article, is such total BS.
It's just a critical thinking exercise. They were not actually going to send the stuff - that's obviously a fiction invented by a conservative parent and inattentive student. It is often useful to have students argue a particular side of a debate, whether or not they agree with it. In fact, it is especially useful to know how to argue against yourself. If you can't find the weaknesses in an argument, then agreeing with someone or something is just blind ignorance. Moreover, without understanding how argument and rhetoric are used in persuasion, one can't successfully build such arguments oneself. I often have students in my essay writing class try argue to silly things that I know they don't agree with just so they can learn about how to build a logical argument and use rhetoric to prove a point.
There was nothing wrong with this exercise until it was taken out of context and turned into a political ploy instead of what it was - an exercise in critical thinking. That poor teacher - he was actually using good teaching practices appropriately, and this is what happens. I can almost guarantee that such an exercise has been recommended at many a professional development meeting for social studies teachers. Most likely he didn't even think it up himself.
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What a joke!
Find the faults with GOP candidates
